by Tim Delaney | Dec 3, 2012
Risk culture is the way people behave about risk. But people, organizations, and risk are all complex and dynamic. It’s important to have a formal concept of risk culture, but perhaps the best way to explain it is through examples. Dan Sparks at Goldman Sachs In...
by Tim Delaney | Dec 12, 2011
The New York Times DealBook blog just put out a fine piece on the collapse of MF Global: A Romance with Risk That Brought on a Panic by Azam Ahmed, Ben Protess, and Susanne Craig (December 11, 2012). It’s the most comprehensive summary of the events that led to...
by Tim Delaney | Oct 21, 2011
There are a number of worthwhile accounts of the firms that failed or nearly failed in the great financial market collapse of 2007-2009. Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin and All the Devils Are Here by Bethany Maclean and Joseph Nocera are two strong general...
by Tim Delaney | Apr 13, 2010
Last post, we argued that Lehman’s Repo 105 balance-sheet-management tactic was not the worst thing Lehman Brothers did on its way to extinction. Volume 8 of Anton Vakulas’s Bankruptcy Examiner’s report details a bunch of blunders with far more serious consequences....
by Tim Delaney | Mar 30, 2010
A few weeks ago, the world was shocked to learn that Lehman Brothers was guilty of “window dressing” its balance sheet throughout 2007 and 2008. As the New York Times’ Dealbook put it, ”In Lehman’s Demise, Some Shades of Enron.” The outrage is based on information in...
